Factoid Archive 5

Grainy Snapshot

Since 1977, American's consumption of Mexican foods has increased four-fold, and consumption of snack foods such as crackers, popcorn, pretzels and corn chips has tripled.
SOURCE: USDA

Bond, Helium Bond

University of Minnesota chemists have become the first to use a mechanical tool to measure the length of a chemical bond, between helium dimers. A tiny sieve containing nanoscale holes revealed the bond length as 62 angstroms.
SOURCE: Journal of Chemical Physics, 1/15/96

Hot Facts

The average surface temperature of the earth climbed to a record high in 1995, 58.7 F. Moreover, the years 1991 through 1995 were warmer than any similar five-year period, including the two half-decades of the 1980s, the warmest decade yet recorded.
SOURCE: Reports by the British Meteorological Office and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

New Bugs

Entomologist Terry Erwin studies insect diversity in the rain forest canopy of the neo-tropics. Terry discovers between 1,500-2,000 species of insects in each tree he examines. Eighty percent of what he finds in a single tree is new to science.
SOURCE: Biodiversity Online

Microbial Motor

The E. Coli bacterium propels itself with a 'motor' only one-millionth of an inch in diameter, a thousand times smaller than the tiniest motors built to date by man. The rotation of the bacterial motor comes from a current of protons. The efficiency of the motor approaches 100 per cent.
SOURCE: Dr. David F. Blair, Utah University

Toxic Brew

There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee. Of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats.
SOURCE: Dr. Bruce Ames, UC Berkeley, in Smithsonian Magazine 12/95

Poultry Power

The waste produced by one chicken in its lifetime can supply enough electricity to run a 100 watt bulb for five hours.
SOURCE: Ireland's Minister of State for Energy, Mr. Emmet Stagg, announcing plans to promote the production of electricity from biomass and waste.

Recombinant Cow Juice

A telephone poll of nearly 2,000 households in the US revealed that 53.8% of consumers are skeptical about drinking milk from cows fed recombinant bovine growth hormone. 94 percent thought milk should be labeled to distinguish milk from rBGH-treated cows.
SOURCE: UW- Madison Survey

DNA Trail Mix

Research biologists from the National Biological Service are using DNA samples from mountain lion feces to evaluate the cats' dietary patterns.
SOURCE: US Park Service, Yosemite

Global Cooling?

The composite global temperature in the lower atmosphere was below average for the second consecutive month, while a record low temperature in the stratosphere was recorded in January, 1996. This could be caused by the greenhouse effect and/or ozone depletion.
SOURCE:Dr. John Christy, associate professor of atmospheric science in the Earth System Science Lab at the University of Alabama, Huntsville.

ENIAC

ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes.By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster.
SOURCE: ENIAC Online Birthday Party 2.96

The Blink of an Eye

If the 4.6 billion year evolution of our planet were conceived of as a single day, the 40,000 years of human existence would take up on the last two seconds.
SOURCE: Discovery- Sci-Trek.

Amazonian Plot

A plot of land in Amazonia the size of a suburban lawn supports 300 species of trees.
SOURCE: Biodiversity Online

Bond, Helium Bond

University of Minnesota chemists have become the first to use a mechanical tool to measure the length of a chemical bond, between helium dimers. A tiny sieve containing nanoscale holes revealed the bond length as 62 angstroms.
SOURCE: Journal of Chemical Physics, 1/15/96

New Bugs

Entomologist Terry Erwin studies insect diversity in the rain forest canopy of the neo-tropics. Terry discovers between 1,500-2,000 species of insects in each tree he examines. Eighty percent of what he finds in a single tree is new to science.
SOURCE: Biodiversity Online

Microbial Motor

The E. coli bacterium propels itself with a 'motor' only one-millionth of an inch in diameter, a thousand times smaller than the tiniest motors built to date by man. The rotation of the bacterial motor comes from a current of protons. The efficiency of the motor approaches 100 per cent.
SOURCE: Dr. David F. Blair, Utah University

Toxic Brew

There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee. Of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats.
SOURCE: Dr. Bruce Ames, UC Berkeley, in Smithsonian Magazine 12/95

Poultry Power

The waste produced by one chicken in its lifetime can supply enough electricity to run a 100 watt bulb for five hours.
SOURCE: Ireland's Minister of State for Energy, Mr. Emmet Stagg, announcing plans to promote the production of electricity from biomass and waste.